KoinlyticsYield vaults are smart contracts that pool user deposits and execute a strategy on their behalf. You get a share token; the vault does the compounding, rebalancing, and protocol-hopping. Four families dominate.
Yearn v3
The original. Vaults hold a single asset and route it across compatible strategies (Aave, Compound, Curve LP). Fees: 10% performance, 2% management. Strong track record but manual strategy selection.
Morpho MetaMorpho
Curated vaults on top of Morpho Blue's isolated lending markets. Each vault has a curator (Gauntlet, Steakhouse, Block Analitica) who allocates deposits across risk-tiered markets. You pick the curator whose risk tolerance matches yours.
Fluid vaults
Combines lending and DEX liquidity in one smart-vault-like primitive on Instadapp's stack. Higher capital efficiency because a single deposit can earn lending yield and LP fees simultaneously.
Superform
An aggregation UI that lets you deposit into vaults across chains and protocols from one interface. You are still deposited in the underlying (Yearn, Aave, Morpho); Superform just abstracts the routing.
What to actually watch
- Curator or strategist. Their track record matters more than the vault's APY quote.
- Deposit and withdrawal cost. If you have to swap through 5 protocols to enter, gas can eat weeks of yield.
- Withdrawal queue. Some vaults have queues during high demand (Yearn withdraw from illiquid strategies).
- Fees. Performance fee (10% typical), management fee (0-2%), and any protocol fee on the underlying.
- Contract risk. Vault + underlying = 2-3 layers of contracts. Each is a potential failure surface.
When to skip vaults
If your position is large enough that gas doesn't matter and you check DeFi weekly, running the strategy manually captures the fee. Vaults make sense for smaller positions or hands-off yield.